Despite the fact that much information is available in the literature regarding adolescents with a substance abuse problem, little exists that focuses on the parents' personal experience dealing with this problem. Not many researchers actually interviewed parents--when they did, it was usually for parents' observations of their adolescent or their views of treatment success--and seemingly none did so for the purpose of allowing parents to tell their own story in their own words. Furthermore, most of the existing literature has tended to see such parents in terms of their deficits, even when advocating the importance of their being included in the treatment process. Through the lens of a Family Systems perspective and by allowing parents to speak for themselves, this preliminary study explores what it was like for three parents to have had their sons go through a residential substance abuse treatment program. Six categories emerged from the semi-structured interviews: initial departure, settling in, homecoming, resources, costs and losses, and advice to other parents and professionals. The findings expand the primarily negative view of such parents to include a richer and more complex understanding. / Master of Science

Parents with adolescents often find themselves caught in the stress and strain that normally accompanies this stage of life. It is when parents cannot meet the demands of troubled adolescents that they find themselves seeking family therapy. Most of what is reported about the process of therapy continues to be from the therapist's or reseacher's perspective. There has been an increased interest in what clients have to say about their experiences. The purpose of this study was to develop a detailed description of how parents of adolescents who attended family therapy in private practice settings viewed their experiences. Fifteen parents who had been to therapy with their adolescent were recruited by their therapist to be interviewed for this study. A multicase qualitative design and constructivist theoretical framework guided the investigation. The constant comparative analysis was used to develop four core categories that described the subtitles of parents' therapeutic experience. Five case stories illustrated the core categories and parents' quotes were used to further embellish the findings. The findings included parents' experiences prior to beginning therapy, during therapy as well as reflections in retrospect. The pre-therapy presentation, based on expectations and past experiences in treatment, affected the way parents initially approached therapy. A supportive therapeutic climate was necessary for parents to trust and become open to possibilities and do the hard work required to make changes. The story of their current experience was part of the family therapy process. Parents recognized changes and what they valued about their experiences in family therapy. / Master of Science

This study examined how parents experienced their first child's transition to adolescence. A multiple-case qualitative research design was chosen to examine parents' experiences. Family systems theory and family stress and coping theory provided a theoretical starting point. Participants were recruited who had adolescents between ages 13 and 16 and saw their family as normally stressed, indicated in part by an absence of court involvement, substance abuse issues, school failure, and participation in therapy. Ten families were selected: parents from eight of these families participated in focus groups, and five sets of parents were interviewed in their homes. The grounded theory approach to qualitative inquiry developed by Glaser and Strauss guided data collection and analysis. This study identified a complex array of intrapersonal, interpersonal, and contextual factors involved in parents' experience of this transition. A theoretical model was developed to illustrate how specific components of parents' experiences might be interrelated. The process seemed to be initiated when the parents noticed a physical, social/emotional, or relational change in their teenager. Parents responded to the perceived change through their affect, cognition, and behavior. They interpreted what was happening by processes of evaluation, reorientation, and frame. These three components-perception, response, and interpretation-were seen to interact with elements of past and current family context, such as expectations, family dynamics, family of origin influences, and sociocultural change. The overall process involved parents' attempts to regain family equilibrium at different levels of adolescent autonomy and progress toward anticipated future teen changes in ways that either enhance or diminish family cohesion. / Master of Science

Thèse (Ph.D.)--Université Laval, 1998. / Comprend des réf. bibliogr. : f. [130]-133. Publié aussi en version électronique. CaQQUQ

Thèse (Ph.D.)--Université Laval, 1998. / Bibliogr.: f. [130]-133. Publié aussi en version électronique.

Adolescent depression affects up to 24% of adolescents before adulthood and is linked with serious outcomes. However as only 25% of affected adolescents in Australia receive appropriate assistance the prevention of adolescent depression has a high priority. Risk and protective factors exist in the individual, family, school and society, but the connection between these factors is often uncertain. Prevention at the individual level has been found to be successful but despite the importance of family factors there is little research into prevention at the family level. Because of the difficulty in engaging parents in preventive interventions it has been suggested that convenient, flexible delivery interventions may achieve better penetration. This study evaluates in two stages the Resourceful Adolescent Parent Program (RAP-P), a positively-focused family-based intervention for parents which has been developed to fill the need for a universal preventive intervention for adolescent depression. Firstly the study evaluates the theoretical basis for RAP-P by developing and testing models linking the family-based psychosocial risk and protective factors for teenage depression that are addressed by RAP-P, and the family systems factors underpinning these. No previous models linking these variables could be found in the literature. The study then evaluates two formats of RAP-P, one of three facilitated workshops attended by parents; the other a videotaped flexible delivery format for use at home, developed to overcome parents' poor involvement in preventive programs. Participants were 242 adolescents in Year 8 and 361 of their parents, recruited from eleven schools in Brisbane, Australia. Schools were randomly allocated to one of three conditions: workshop intervention, video intervention and control. Adolescents and parents completed measures at pre-test, post-test and 15 month follow-up. Based on the current adolescent depression literature and Bowen Theory, four models were developed, tested using structural equation modeling and confirmed after minor revisions. The first model examined links between adolescents' depression and the family based risk factors of parent-adolescent conflict and adolescents' negative perceptions of their parents' interactions with them, and the protective factor of parental attachment. Other models, based on Bowen Theory, examined the trans-generational transmission of differentiation of self from the adolescents' grandparents (generation 1) to the adolescents' parents (generation 2) and the effects of parents' differentiation and anxiety on the third generation adolescents' perceptions of their mothers, attachment and depression. The second part of the study examined the implementation and efficacy of the two formats of RAP-P. Predictions that the convenience of the flexible delivery format of RAP-P would result in better recruitment and lower attrition than for the workshop format were not supported, with the flexible delivery format encountering poorer recruitment and higher attrition. Predictions that parents' evaluations of both formats would be equally positive were not supported; the flexible delivery format was consistently evaluated less positively than the workshop format. However parents perceived both formats to be of similar benefit to them. Parents in the intervention conditions were predicted to exhibit better differentiation and lower anxiety than those in the control condition, resulting in their adolescents experiencing less intense conflict over fewer issues and appraising their parents more positively, and consequently exhibiting better parental attachment and lower levels of depression. The level of improvement was predicted to be related to the level of parental engagement in the interventions. However parents and adolescents in the intervention conditions did not show any positive effects of the interventions at post-test or follow-up. Parents who were engaged in the interventions and their adolescents similarly did not show any measurable benefits from the intervention. Thus this study has found support through modeling for the theoretical basis for RAP-P. Parents' feedback strongly supported the overall thrust and ethos of RAP-P and particularly of the workshop format, indicating that the intervention targeted the right factors in the right way. However the interventions did not achieve measurable improvements for parents or adolescents within the time frame of the study. With models supporting the appropriateness of the measured variables it appears that the potency of the intervention was insufficient. Finally the study found that the use of a flexible delivery videotape intervention did not achieve its goal of increased participation and was still very costly of resources.

Thèses (M.A.)--Université de Sherbrooke (Canada), 2003. / Titre de l'écran-titre (visionné le 24 août 2006). Publié aussi en version papier.

Thèse (Ph. D.)--Université Laval, 2004. / Bibliogr.: f. [152]-155. Publié aussi en version électronique.

Thèse (M.Ps.) -- Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, programme extensionné de l'Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, 2004. / La p. de t. porte en outre : Mémoire présenté à l'Université du Québec à Chicoutimi comme exigence partielle de la maîtrise en psychologie offerte à l'Université du Québec à Chicoutimi en vertu d'un protocole d'entente avec l'Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières. Comprend des réf. bibliogr. : f. [137]-145. Document électronique également accessible en format PDF.

Thèse (Ph. D.)--Université Laval, 1997. / Bibliogr.: f. 179-199. Publié aussi en version électronique.